Working Group Theme Leaders
Theme Leaders Clinical Working Group
Dr. Christopher J. Patterson is a Professor of Geriatrics in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University and Medical Director of the Rehabilitation, Seniors’ Health and ABI Program, Hamilton Health Sciences. Dr. Patterson graduated from King's College Hospital Medical School (University of London, England) in 1970. He studied clinical epidemiology at McMaster, where he has been a faculty member since 1982. His research at McMaster includes preventive health care, health services and aspects of cognitive functioning in the elderly. He is a member of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, serves on the Editorial Board of the CPS (Compendium of Pharmaceutical Specialties) and is theme leader of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention of the McMaster Health Sciences Research in Aging Group.
Lifestyle and Nutrition Working Group
Dr. Hélène Payette is Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke, and Director of the Research Centre on Aging of the Université de Sherbrooke Geriatric Institute. She specializes in nutrition, epidemiology and aging. Her research interests include healthy eating and its determinants, body composition and functional capacities in the aging individual as well as screening for nutritional risks and evaluation of nutritional interventions in the community-dwelling frail elderly using randomized controlled designs. She was awarded the Centrum Foundation New Scientist Award by the Canadian Society for Nutritional Sciences (2004). Dr Payette is currently the principal investigator for the "Québec Longitudinal Study on Nutrition as a Determinant of Successful Aging" (NuAge) funded by CIHR for 5 years where longstanding and current dietary habits as well as age-related alterations in energy metabolism and body composition are examined in relation to changes in numerous markers of physical and cognitive status, functional autonomy and social functioning.
Psychological Health Working Group
Dr. Holly Tuokko is a Professor in the Centre on Aging and the Department of Psychology at the University of Victoria. She holds a CIHR Senior Investigator award from the Institute of Aging, CIHR (2002-2007) for research in mental health and aging. The current focus of her research is the evolution of cognitive disorders in older adults, the impact these disorders have on functional competency and how the needs of persons with mental health problems can best be met. A major goal of her work is to establish a "fit" between the needs of the person and the environmental context in which they live, in order to maximize independent functioning. She has published many articles in the field, and serves on the editorial boards of numerous international journals and review boards for various granting agencies and has authored a textbook in the field of geriatric neuropsychological assessment.
Social Health Working Group
Dr. Margaret Penning is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Centre on Aging, University of Victoria, British Columbia. She currently holds a Health Career Award from CIHR. Her research interests include issues of aging, health and health care with a particular focus on coping with chronic illness and disability in later life; patterns of self, informal, and formal health care and the implications of health care restructuring for older adults and for community-based care. She is currently a co-investigator on a longitudinal study on aging – “Aging in Manitoba” – and principal investigator of two longitudinal studies to assess the implications of regionalization for health service delivery and to examine the impact of regionalization on equitable access to health among vulnerable subgroups within the older adult population.
Health and Healthcare Working Group
Please see http://www.clsa-elcv.ca/en/principal_investigators/ for bios for the three Theme Leaders.
Biomarker/Genetic/EpiGenetic Working Group
Michael S. Kobor began his academic studies in his native Germany, coming to Canada to complete his PhD in Medical Genetics (Biochemistry) under Dr. Jack Greenblatt at the University of Toronto. His postdoctoral training was with Dr. Jasper Rine at the University of California, Berkeley, in Molecular and Cell Biology. His major research interest is the molecular biology of chromatin structures and their role in chromosome biology and genome function in health and disease, contributing to a detailed understanding of the principal mechanisms underlying diseases in the context of chromatin. Research in Dr. Kobor’s laboratory touches on some of the fundamental questions in chromatin biology, applying innovative genomic and proteomic technologies. These queries include how distinct chromosomal neighbourhoods are established, how they function and interact with enzymes involved in DNA metabolism, what the functional differences between histone variants and canonical histones are, and how chromatin-remodeling complexes are regulated. Recently, Dr. Kobor’s research team has begun to investigate epigenetic variation in humans, with a particular focus on the effects of social environment, as well as testing for epigenetic patterns correlated with respiratory disease. These studies aim to decipher the interplay between the environment, the genome and the epigenome during the life course of an individual. Dr. Kobor is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, where he is appointed as a Scientist at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. He is a continuing member of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s Experience-based Brain & Biological Development Program and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar. Very active in the scientific community, Dr. Kobor also serves as an Investigator with AllerGen NCE Inc. and as a member of the BC Clinical Genomics Network Management Committee. Ongoing research in Dr. Kobor’s laboratory is funded by the CIHR, National Institutes of Health, AllerGen NCE Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Human Early Learning Partnership and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
Russell Hepple is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is currently a CIHR Institute of Aging New Investigator and has been appointed an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholar (effective July 1, 2007). Dr. Hepple received his PhD from the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto in 1996, and conducted his Postdoctoral training in the Division of Physiology at the University of California San Diego. Since joining the University of Calgary in 1999, he has developed a research program that focuses upon the regulation of skeletal muscle mass and aerobic function, with a particular focus on the impact of aging on these processes. Dr. Hepple supports his research program through operating grants from CIHR and NSERC. In addition to research, Dr. Hepple teaches a senior undergraduate course in Kinesiology (Physiological Aspects of Aging, Disease, and Physical Activity) and guest lectures for courses in Kinesiology, Medicine and Biological Sciences. He has been an invited attendee at stakeholder meetings with the Institute of Aging related to the Mobility in Aging initiative and with the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health related to developing a new focus area around skeletal muscle. Dr. Hepple is regularly involved in reviewing grants for NSERC, CIHR and the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). He was also recently appointed as a member of the SPO grants review committee with CIHR.
Cynthia M. Balion Dr. Balion is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine at the McMaster University and Clinical Biochemist for the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program (HRLMP). She is also a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (CACB) and chairs the Accreditation Committee. Dr. Balion is actively involved in basic and clinical research including evidence-based laboratory medicine (EBLM). Her research interests are in the discovery and evaluation of biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases, systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy, geriatric clinical biochemistry and enhancing laboratory test reporting. As a clinical biochemist consultant her focus areas are in quality control and point of care tests. She is a co-investigator for the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) sharing responsibility for sample collection, biobank operation, and test methodology for high-throughput biomarker analysis of the stored samples.
Michael Hayden is professor of medical genetics at the University of British Columbia and director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, has been named Canada’s 2008 “Health Researcher of the Year” in the field of biomedical and clinical research – the highest scientific honour from the CIHR. The award recognizes innovation, creativity and dedication to health research and honours Dr. Hayden’s discoveries into the way gene mutations may give rise to diseases such as diabetes and Huntington's disease. He discovered the ABCA1 gene, which is involved in the development of type 2 diabetes, and has also identified genes responsible for eight other disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and pain. Dr. Hayden is also leading an international fund-raising effort to build a community centre for children affected by HIV and AIDS in Cape Town South Africa that also will promote responsible sexual behaviors among at-risk youth. Dr. Hayden graduated at the top of his medical school class at the University of Cape Town. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical genetics and was an instructor at Harvard before joining the UBC Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Hayden is a University Killam Professor. In addition to being one of the co-founders of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, which is part of the Child & Family Research Institute, he is the founder of three biotechnology companies: NeuroVir Therepeutics Inc., Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Methodology Working Group
Please see http://www.clsa-elcv.ca/en/principal_investigators/ for Christina Wolfson’s bio.
Harry Shannon trained in the United Kingdom in mathematics and statistics. He is a professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University where he has been a faculty member since 1977. He also holds an appointment in public health sciences at the University of Toronto. He is a past president of the Canadian Association for Research on Work and Health (CARWH), and has published extensively in this field. Shannon's research interests include musculoskeletal and other work-related injuries and the relationship between work stress, workplace organization, and health and safety.
Richard Cook obtained his BSc in statistics from McMaster University before going to the University of Waterloo for a Masters in mathematics (statistics) in 1988. He obtained his PhD in statistics in 1992 and has held various positions in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science where he is now professor and Canada Research Chair in Statistical Methods for Health Research. He currently holds a cross-appointment with the Department of Health Studies and Gerontology at the University of Waterloo, and a part-time appointment in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University. Professor Cook engages in active collaborations with oncologists from McMaster University, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Sheffield University (UK) on problems relating to the analysis of treatments for the prevention of complications arising from metastases in cancer patients. He also collaborates with faculty in the McMaster Transfusion Research Program and has co-authored several methodological and clinical papers in transfusion medicine. Professor Cook works closely with rheumatologists at the Centre for Prognosis Studies in Rheumatic Disease at the University of Toronto, where contributions have been made for the characterization of rates and risk factors for disease progression in arthritis. Professor Cook has held career awards from the Medical Research Council of Canada (1995-99) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2000-05), and is currently funded by NSERC, CIHR, CRC, and industry.